Google AdSense Forum

I went back and checked on a number of sites that I had reported for abuse back in late August and September.

In every case the sites are either coming up with 404's, have no ads or they have switched to Yahoo Ads :-)

I get impatient with the snail's pace that AS uses on these sites however they are dealing with them in their own good time.

One I am monitoring right now that was reported on Oct. 7 and has no content just endless links to pages with AS ads. The ads are still running. I have followed up.

My biggest complaint in this process is the time lag before action is taken. This is one area that they need to improve above all others. Fast reaction time would send a message that the effort isn't worth it if the site is only up a few weeks before getting booted.

jessejump wrote: >If Google doesn't care about these sites, then why do you?

Google do care about the sites for the same reason we do - because it directly hits our bottom line. Eg: I take part in a widget forum where some widget producers have stopped advertising online because of the types of problems we discuss here. If we can get rid of the cheats, there are plenty of rich people and companies out there willing to spend lots more money.

If Google is perceived to 'not care' I suspect it is because of the time and effort involved in trying to get the decisions right. As some members of this forum can testify, they do care - because they spend time considering appeals and reversing decisions when they make mistakes. Investigating each case no doubt takes a lot of time.

I reported a site the ads were taken away, but then again somehow they got ads again and they are violating TOS again and it has been 3 months I reported them twice yet nothing has been done. Another site that had way to many ads on 1 page at a time is still up also they just took away most of the ads I guess google gave them a warning or something.

The earnings that they have gotten from this illgel TOS breaking activity they are now getting a dedicated server to get even more traffic and create more illegal activity they even state that they are using stuff that is again TOS yet google does nothing about it sometimes that just angers me.

It has often been suggested that we should be forced to register any site that our code goes on with AdSense and it's worth repeating again.

It may well be that AS already knows every site where the code appears as they are delivering ads however it would be another level of quality control and may cause some people to stop and think about what they are doing.

...take the time to search not only that phrase but many others that crooks are using to scam the system and the advertisers.

I saw a PR 8 site inciting clicks once. I emailed the site owner and advised him that it was against the TOS. The guy was a middle aged programmer in a small town in Rhode Island. He had no clue he was breaking the TOS.

He thanked me warmly for the friendly heads-up. He not only fixed the error, but he took down all other advertising on his site because he was afraid of Google.

I've seen similar cases several times afterward.

Remember, it is not always thieves who are inciting clicks. The webmaster you are lynching may be a non-techie senior citizen or an otherwise law abiding human being who didn't read the TOS and simply needs a helping hand, not a backhand.

I think there does need to be some leeway given to people who violate the TOS in minor ways, vs. people who are outright stealing.

Having ads on an inappropriate page, or putting "Please look at the ads" are probably a minor violation and banning someone for life for those things seems overly harsh to me. That might even be well intentioned and it might seem to the guy like advertisers would actually benefit too. Somewhere between "Click a few ads if you like this site" and outright clicking by the site owner himself is where it should go from a friendly reminder or a slap on the wrist to an outright permanent ban.

You raise a good point but my question to that is, how many people read the TOS?

And of those who read it, how many can cut through the legalese and confidently state they understand it all?

I'm not advocating against turning people in. All I'm saying is that there are many people out there who are decent human beings doing things they never realized was against the TOS. All I'm saying is to think before you lynch someone who may otherwise be innocent.

that is if you take the time to read them in the first place which is what we all got prompted to do a couple of weeks ago, there is no excuse anymore for not knowing you was breaking any of the guidelines, google forced you to read what you was agreeing to, you placed the tick in the box and clicked on submit otherwise you could not login to your account.

I have reported other sites to AS. I just felt that those sites within my niche were doing silly things more through ignorance that malice. And in fact, two did get back in touch with me saying they had had no idea. I know, ignorance of the law, blah blah blah.

But these were webmasters who I sort of knew, had decent sites that added to the niche I'm in (rather than take away) and I just felt like being a good citizen.

But, as I say, I have shopped other sites without hesitation where the breaking of the TOS was repeated, blatant and on poor sites too.